sawmill trauma

There are jobs where you are paid to be ready to go to work, a Fire Fighter being one and Paramedic on an ambulance being another one. For twenty some years I've spent many hours on an ambulance waiting to go to work. It is not a job every body could do or would want to. For it is a job of taking care of not so nice things that happen to people both young and old. Such as sickness, trauma and other bad thing that happen when we do not use common sense. I don’t fault people for not using common sense, for if it wasn’t for other people stupidity I would be out of work. So of course I do have a warm place in my heart for those poor souls whom lack common sense. A week end ago I happen to be on my 24 hour shift when a 911 call came in, a 54 year old male head injury at a saw mill. We were dispatched at 0908 hours and it was ten minutes to the scene. Upon EMS arrival the 54 year old patient was laying in a mound of sawdust with a soiled rag around his head to control bleeding. Bystanders stated that their was a sizeable piece of green oak board that was thrown from the three foot saw blade and hit the patient on the left side of his head causing him to lose conscious. I had another medic to remove the rage around his head so we could assess the patient. On removal of the rage we found our patient mines his left ear and possible head injury. Transport time to the closest ER was 35 to 40 minutes the decision was to fly the patient out. We told the medics on the helicopter that we would search thought the mounds of sawdust and try to recover the patient’s ear. Luck was with us and bystanders found the ear and it was transported along with the patient. It was a call the ended well the ear was packaged proper and with the fast transport time to the ER they should be able to attach that ear to its proper owner. We don’t get a trauma call that often, it a good feeling when they end well. When my next 24 hour shift came around I was at the hospital to check on that patient if they were able to attach the ear. One of the doctors in the ER said your team did a great job on that scene, but! You’re not going to believe this the patient refused that ear, said it was not his because his ear had a pencil behind it.